Thursday, May 19, 2016
Halloween Candy
In The Lucifer Effect, Zimbardo tells about his experiment in which researchers put out bowls of candy and money labeled "Take one." Through their study, they found out that people were more likely to "steal" them if their identity remained anonymous. However, this "candy stealing" drastically declined when alone and identifiable. This shows how the mask that they hide behind can give them an extra push to do things they would not normally do. Once when I went trick-or-treating with my friend, we were in a very similar situation. Hiding behind his Egyptian mask, he dashed out and took not only all the candy, but the bowl as well. This example attests to Zimbardo's theory and clearly demonstrates his idea.
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I agree, I experienced similar situation during Halloween. I was a friends house finishing an essay for school when one of our other friends came uninvited. My friend told him that he could only come in if he went out and trick-or-treated for some candy, so we gave him a mask to go get candy and in less then 5 minutes he came back with a bowl of candy from the next door neighbor.
ReplyDeleteI agree, I experienced similar situation during Halloween. I was a friends house finishing an essay for school when one of our other friends came uninvited. My friend told him that he could only come in if he went out and trick-or-treated for some candy, so we gave him a mask to go get candy and in less then 5 minutes he came back with a bowl of candy from the next door neighbor.
ReplyDeleteThis effect can not only cause people to take entire bowls of candy but can also cause people to rape and murder indiscriminately. They can do whatever they want behind the mask, because they'll never be caught.
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